Jonathan Jeter

Director of Application Development

Home Archives for Search engines

Harnessing the Power of Intent Data and Predictive Analytics

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Harnessing the Power of Intent Data and Predictive Analytics
Michael Mire, SweetIQ

Local search is the ultimate indicator of intent.

  • We’re doing it all the time. (4 in 5 consumers use search engines to find local information.)
  • We’re doing it more and more. (Google search interest in “near me” has increased 34x since 2011.)

We’re on our way to online to offline (O2O) direct attribution.

Today, there are lots of moving parts, which makes it look a lot like Swiss Cheese.

You’re only able to track <3% of the market today, so it’s difficult to create a reliable model.

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Build an O2O attribution funnel / model.

  • Impressions – number of times your stores appeared in local search

The Relentless Pursuit of the Right Answer: Why Achieving Relevance at Scale is Worth Your Time

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The Relentless Pursuit of the Right Answer: Why Achieving Relevance at Scale is Worth Your Time
Scott Ensign, DAC Group
Erin Heffernan, Optimedia US

What does relevance mean in Search?

Inherent in every search is a question. Context is extremely important.

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  • Give the right answer every time
  • Leverage more than just the keyword
  • Get highly targeted in your ad copy
  • Keep to the leading edge of user expectations
    • Mobile can be the primary driver for some campaigns
  • Search engines know a lot about the user. How do you leverage that data?
    • Not settling for “best available” destination

Building Scaled Search Programs

  • Think of the user (the user doesn’t care about your org chart)
  • Think of the client
  • Leverage business/third-party data
  • Campaigns are the new ad groups
  • Leverage technology

Tools to Manage at Scale

  • Proprietary tools
  • SEM tools

Building an Effective Digital Marketing Foundation

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Image representing Forrester Research as depic...
Image via CrunchBase

James McCormick, Senior Analyst – Forrester Research
[email protected]
@JFMcCormick

Here are my notes for the Digital Velocity conference

  • The customer insights challenge
  • A blueprint for digital marketing
  • Assessment of suite adopters
  • Strategies for success

The Changing Customer Behavior

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  • The number of ways customers engage had exploded
  • Digital channels dominate (Google, Amazon.com, store website, search engines, etc.) Only offline channels are family/friends and physical store.
  • The digital landscape is changing – tablets and phones
    • Websites are now getting more traffic from tablets than smartphones
    • Internet users view 70% more pages on a tablet than a smartphone
  • Customers’ multi-channel behavior is complex (across phone, PC and tablet) – 22% engage multiple channels simultaneously
  • Multiple devices have given birth to the always addressable customer
    • Multiple devices
    • Frequent Access
    • Multiple locations

Coming Soon – The New Google +1 Button

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New Google +1 buttonThe Google+ Developers group announced today that the next update to the +1 button is strictly a UI change, with no functionality differences. I like the look of the clicked button, after you have activated it by using the plus one functionality.

However, the +1 button itself, not clicked, seems a little too camouflaged to me. It blends in with the surrounding area and doesn’t yell “click me!” like a good “call to action” button should. We talk a lot about the difference between what good design looks like and good design that actually gets user interaction, so I’m sure the good folks developing the Google+ button have tested the new design and found that the new design outperforms the old. They wouldn’t just change things to keep changing things, would they?

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Google+ Updates Launched

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Google Plus

As I mentioned in my post the other day, the Google+ Badge has gotten some tweaks. I think they’re great improvements that will help you increase your reach on Google+, as well as some good usability updates that just make sense.

I really like the new follow button in the Google+ site badge. It just makes sense to be able to put a site in your follow circle if you don’t want to decide which circle you want to add the person or site.

The new plus 1 button functionality sounded a lot better than it has actually proved out to be after the launch. The click on the +1 button is supposed to automatically trigger the share widget to appear. In practice, it seems like their is a brief hesitation before the share widget is triggered. In my experience, I personally navigate away from the button as soon as I’ve clicked it, so I would like to see the share widget open more quickly. It may be programmed to do that, but maybe server or bandwidth limitations make it a little less responsive.

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Exploring Standard Ad Unit Sizes: Google AdSense 200×200 – Small Square

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A 200x200 pixel square. Intended for display a...

Jumping right into the next square offering from Google Adsense, we have the 200×200 – Small Square. If you’re sidebar or content area is to small to accommodate the 250×250 – Square or the 300×250 – Medium Rectangle, your next option is the 200 x 200 – Small Square.  The 200 x 200 – Square is multifaceted and can be placed in many areas of your page. Additionally, with some testing as to placement and design, this ad unit can produce a respectable amount of  clicks. However, just like the 250×250 Ad Unit, the 200 x 200 has been relegated to the disapproved list by Microsoft Advertising, as well as the IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau), in favor of the 300×250 rectangle.

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Exploring Standard Ad Unit Sizes: Google AdSense 250×250 – Square

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The Google AdSense 250×250 – Square is one of my favorite ad units and it’s one you’ll see commonly around the Web now, both in side bars and in content with wrap around text. The 250 x 250 – Square is versatile and can be placed in many locations, added to the fact that used correctly it can convert very well. However, the 250×250 Ad Unit has fallen out of favor byMicrosoft Advertising, as well as the IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau), in favor of the 300×250 rectangle.

The 250×250 Square ad unit is still very useful, though, and can be used both with text-only and image/rich media versions, as seen below:

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Related articles

Exploring Standard Ad Unit Sizes: Google AdSense 120×600 Skyscraper

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Examples of standard web advert sizes, from th...

Next up in the series of posts on Google AdSense ad sizes are the ads in the Google Adsense “Other – Vertical” banner category, starting with the 120×600 skyscraper. The reason the ad unit is called a skyscraper is because it is tall and thin and can dominate the space, like an actual, physical skyscraper. This ad unit is not in the AdSense top 4 recommended sizes and is listed in the Delisted Standard Ad Units category of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Ad Unit Guidelines. Microsoft Advertising, however, continues to list the 120 x 600 – Skyscraper as part of its standard ad unit sizes, both for marketers and agencies, as well for small and medium businesses.

The original skyscraper was thinner than the current commonly used version of the skyscraper, to accommodate the small side rails in the layouts of many web sites. As site design has changed and elements, including sidebars, of site layouts have gotten larger, the Google AdSense 160×600 Wide Skyscraper has become the more prominently used ad unit.

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Exploring Standard Ad Unit Sizes: Google AdSense 234×60 Half Banner

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Google Adsense Page Navigation
Image by Stephen Edgar - Netweb via Flickr

As we delve further in this series of posts on Google AdSense ad sizes, we’ll explore the less used and alternate versions of Google AdSense banners. The AdSense 234 x 60 – Half Banner is found in the “Other – Horizontal” category, after the four main recommended sizes. While this ad unit is in the Delisted Standard Ad Unit sizes on the IAB Ad Unit Guidelines, it can be found as a recommended size in the Microsoft Advertising Standard Ad specs. I think the reason for the difference is that the IAB creates standards for agencies and other large advertisers, while AdSense and Microsoft Advertising also provide marketing channels for smaller businesses and publishers.

The 234×60 – Half Banner is very useful in side columns, especially near a navigation menu or under a larger square or rectangle ad unit. I have also seen it used in the footer of a website or blog.

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